Columbus, Ohio, agrees to pay $10 million settlement to family of Andre Hill

The city of Columbus, Ohio, has agreed to pay a record $10 million settlement to the family Andre Hill, a Black man who was shot and killed by a police officer.

The settlement, the highest amount the city has ever agreed to pay, will be voted on by the City Council on Monday, City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement announcing the settlement.

“We understand that because of this former officer’s actions, the Hill family will never be whole,” Klein said.

“No amount of money will ever bring Andre’ Hill back to his family, but we believe this is an important and necessary step in the right direction.”

The city, as part of the settlement, also agreed to rename a municipal gym after Hill.

In a statement, the Hill family and their legal team, led by attorney Ben Crump, thanked the city and its leaders “for doing the right thing” in agreeing to the settlement and the renaming of the gym.

“Now all those involved can begin to heal,” the statement said.

Hill’s daughter, Karissa, holding her 3-year-old daughter, later told reporters that the settlement was a first step in the healing.

“It’s one step but it’s not full justice,” she said. “It doesn’t take the scar off of our hearts that we still have from my dad not being here.”

She added, “You guys all have to remember how my dad died. He died on a 311 call, a non emergency. He was shot four times and after the the four times he was laying on the floor. There were 22 officers on the scene. Nobody helped my father. The money is not even enough to help (with) the pain or anything of my dad laying on that floor.”

She wants to see her father’s face painted on a wall in the gym and community center that will now bare his name, Karrisa Hill said.

Hill was shot and killed on December 22 while officer Adam Coy — who now faces murder charges — and another officer were responding to a report of a man who had been sitting in his SUV for an extended period, repeatedly turning his engine on and off.

Coy fatally shot Hill, 47, within seconds of their encounter as Hill walked toward Coy holding an illuminated cell phone in his left hand, body camera footage showed. Hill was unarmed.

Coy turned his camera on after the shooting. The camera’s look-back feature captured 60 seconds of video, but no audio, before Coy turned it on.

The body camera footage appears to show Coy and Hill walking toward one another, and Coy starts shooting within a few seconds. It’s not clear whether Hill or Coy said anything during their brief interaction because Coy did not activate his body camera.

The first few seconds of Coy’s body camera video in which audio is available show the officer ordering Hill to get his hands out to the side, ordering him to get on his stomach, and warning an officer to not get close because one of Hill’s arms is under the car where he collapsed after being shot.

About 37 seconds after the shooting, Coy asked whether a medic was coming. A report prepared by the Columbus police chief after the shooting said an officer who responded with Coy said she heard Coy say he saw a gun, and that Coy yelled, “There’s a gun in his other hand, there’s a gun in his other hand!”

Crump said in December that Hill was visiting a family friend at the home where he was killed.

Footage from the body camera of another officer at the scene showed Hill lying on the floor of a home’s garage while he is handcuffed.

An unidentified woman came out of the home and told police, “He was bringing me Christmas money! He didn’t do anything.”

Coy was fired in December as a result of the shooting.

Prosecutors last month filed an additional reckless murder charge against Coy, according to court records.

Coy was previously indicted in February on charges of murder in the commission of a felony, felonious assault and two counts of dereliction of duty related to Hill’s death. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Columbus officials were critical of how officers handled rendering aid to Hill.